Hi,
This might be a silly question but I'll ask it anyway. I read somewhere that rain water is good to use in your tank... I was thinking though that if you collect rain water it would need to be filtered to get any leaves or anything else that falls into it. This got me thinking...

Would filtering water (tap or rain) using a filter (e.g. brita filter) before putting it into the tank be beneficial in any way or would that remove stuff that may be useful to the tank?

Just curious...

Angel079

01-20-2010 07:51 PM

Rain water if only then beneficial to your tank if....
You're living in a non polluted, non city like area. You can collect it of a eg. new tin roof that's not rused. Do not use any collecting from a roof that has shingles on it ever. Ideally collect it a clean rain barrel that never had any chems or alike in it. "Filter" it as it goes in the barrel with a piece of window screen.
Using a brita filter on rainwater would defeat the purpose as its gonna filter EVERYTHING beneficial out, so then you may as well go buy bottled water from the store.

stephanieleah

01-21-2010 01:02 AM

when I filter my tap water, it filters out the ammonia (the filtered water tests zero and the tap tests 1ppm). but it's way easier for me to just treat it, plus the plants can use the converted ammonia.

p.s. i use PUR filter. aside from getting out ammonia, it sucks and is rated quite poorly compared to other filters. just a side note :-D

mrdemin

01-21-2010 10:01 AM

I dont know about filtration but what about pH levels. Are you always going to have enough water on hand in case of an emergency? I imagine rain water and your tap water will not have the same makeup.

marzipanquinn

01-21-2010 04:00 PM

I'm from Ireland and live out in the middle of no where (the country side) so water is plentiful (as it rains almost everyday) and it shouldn't be polluted. I will be testing the levels before I use it. It will probably have a different PH than my tap water, will have to test that.
So no no on the filter then, cool, was just curious! I was thinking it would take everything out of it, I just wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing! Now I know.
THANKS :-)

Angel079

01-21-2010 09:19 PM

I had actually typed you up a nice answer few hrs ago JUST as the thunderstorm knocked my internet out (can you believe it a thunderstorm in the winter...only in TN).

Anyway yes; if you can collect it from a clean surface like I said up top, like in a rain barrel with a screen over it to keep leaf litter out, that's what I done before and used it at a ratio 1/3 rain water to 2/3 tap simply to soften the hard water I had back then for the fish I needed it for.

Tyyrlym

01-22-2010 09:03 AM

That's a big benefit of rainwater. The pH is usually closer to neutral than tap. You also don't need to dechlorinate it. If you live somewhere that it rains often enough to count on it I'd go for it.

As for filtering it, unless your tap water has some nasty surprises in it like high concentrations of ammonia I wouldn't bother.

marzipanquinn

01-22-2010 01:13 PM

Thanks a million everybody for your advice, it has been very helpful! I will start collecting water tomorrow in a new clean bucket which I will cover with a light tea towel or mesh, depending on what I find!